I hate to pull another serious discussion in this place but sometimes I had too. I found an interesting topic which discussed what happened if anime/manga become too mainstream. So mainstream that schoolkids have black notebooks that had "Death Note" on them. Lots of old people that aged 70+ constructing Gundam models to kill some free time. Your parents start to talk about some Macross, Gundam and Evangelion stuffs to you. Some other adults are making Naruto and Bleach re-enactment.

Actually that is impossible but will anime/manga lose its coolness if its become too mainstream? I'm pretty sure that certain things up there may become possible but I hope not.

lose it's "coolness" if becoming mainstream? perhaps this is a child's mentality...that along with claiming 1st on things and elitism.

anime becoming mainstream will only mean more money to make more anime. sure there will be more crap, but that is what changing the channel is for. as with everything else it is repetitive so just enjoy it for what it is, entertainment, not some "go card" to the "cool" crowd.

who here thought the latest installments of Transformers was cool? what would that classify under? mainstream cool? haha.

Anime is a medium for boat loads of shit to happen. The whole medium on a whole can't exactly become 'too mainstream'... there will be always studios creating mainstream animes and studios who make less mainstream stuff.

Its kinda like saying... movies becoming mainstream. There are your typical mainstream stuff catering to most people, then there are less mainstream stuff and artsy fartsy stuff and all that.

Anyway there are already kids seen with Death Notes.... writing names of people they hate in it. It raised concern in certain areas and schools. The current generation of 70 year olds probably aren't going to suddenly pick up Gundam and start building plamos, but the current oldest line of Gundam plamo makers might still be making them into their old age for all we know.

At any rate, I doubt everybody in the world would suddenly like anime to the extent that all generations talk about it and whatnot. And if the full grown adults of this generation don't go around re-enacting scenes from whatever the hell they watched..... they aren't going to go about re-enacting anime scenes just because they got into it.

I wouldn't worry about people being dumb about it. The ones that are tend not to last too long in the world.... or tend not to matter. The medium going more mainstream would probably mean more general cookie cutter sort of animes, riding on boring success formulas and there being heaps of half assed shows. Kinda like the game industry swerving into a dump right now.

Yeah, I realize it's a way of showing humble politeness... but there's no reason to hold back. This is perfectly within the scope of the forum, so please go ahead with more such ideas.

Tiberius wrote:

what happened if anime/manga become too mainstream.

If I woke up tomorrow morning and found the world changed in that way I'd find it pretty strange. But it won't happen over night. Anime's way to mainstream entertainment will be slow enough for anyone to cope with the gradual changes.

It's like asking in 1989 "what if broadband internet connections became the norm? So normal schoolkids would have a bag-sized PC for homework? Your granny writing you electronic letters? Your parents moderating discussions between members of a network who live thousands of miles apart?"

Had that happened suddenly the amazement would have surely been extraordinary, but today we (or at least some of us) look back at the technical development of the past 20 years and simply nod and say "those were the days, looking up piles of books and magazines in the library whenever you wanted to write a research paper or anything!"The developments came slow enough to not overwhelm us, and in case Anime's time will come to join the ranks of the perfectly acknowledged media it will have been the same.

Tiberius wrote:

So mainstream that schoolkids have black notebooks that had "Death Note" on them.

Already reality. Don't you read news? There have been near-amok-alarms because kids with no relation to each other (other than having watched Death Note) were found with such lists of personae non grata among their belongings.

Tiberius wrote:

Some other adults are making Naruto and Bleach re-enactment.

Don't be so youth-centered! Anime has been around long enough to allow for cosplayers in their 30s.

Tiberius wrote:

will anime/manga lose its coolness if its become too mainstream?

It's like with everything that becomes mainstream: The fan community will be bigger and more diverse in composition and thus lose its elitist (or nerdy) pretense.

By itself, anime as we know it can't become "mainstream" unless the rest of Japanese culture enticed to it will become mainstream as well. You can see people cosplayed like Naruto, but good luck by asking them about the legend of Amaterasu or the Japanese Imperial jewels. The "visual" things such as clothes or physical appearances can be very easily absorbed, but the curse and the bliss of anime is that Japanese culture is an arcane to 99% of us, starting by its hellaciously difficult language.

I understand the message you are trying to convey Tiberius. However I believe dbd_addict said it best...

dbd_addict wrote:

perhaps this is a child's mentality...

Anime becoming more mainstream would be fantastic. Netflix would carry more titles and hopefully more instant watchable titles. You could pick up more anime at Walmart or Target instead of going to Best Buy(my experience growing up). Sure some of the new "mainstream" anime titles would be bad, but its definitely worth it in the long run.

Joined: April 20th, 2008, 1:05 pmPosts: 1055Location: Tokyo, you're due for another attack from Yours Truly!

If anime becomes too mainstream, it wouldn't be different than the other forms of media then. Then again, it would kinda lose it charm since Hollywood and large entertainment companies would just make it bland and cliched just for profit. Well, anime studios Japan do the same, but not such a large scale as studios in America.

Then again, I do want anime to become more accepted to the general public (IN MODERATION). Same thing for tokusatsu as well.

_________________Sailor Senshi and Gamera are a great mix together. :3

it would kinda lose it charm since Hollywood and large entertainment companies would just make it bland and cliched just for profit.

You probably mean "bland and clichéed in a western way".

Anime works with numerous clichées on a daily basis, so to speak, otherwise 90 % of the productions wouldn't work because they'd need elaborate thinking about realistic characters, and that won't happen.Blonde girls are more lively than girls with black hair, girls with blue socks are more laid back than girls with black socks, and girls with glasses are smarter than girls without glasses, especially blonde girls. I'm sure you can come up with more examples of how clichéed Anime already is.

Your point, imho, is indeed that Anime as an internationally mainstream medium would incorporate local forms of clichées, other than just clichées in the heads of Japanese producers, and that would probably be more disturbing because there wouldn't be any exotic factor to it anymore.

I think a part of mainstream would involve the continuation of franchises just to sell toys or other types of action figures and memorabilia.

Back when Victory Gundam aired in '93, it was supposed to be the final Gundam project. But many other Gundam anime projects have been made since it ended in '94 and the endless parade of new shows started the same year with G-Gundam. I believe even Sunrise said that the main reason for the continuation of the franchise was to make and sell more Gundam model kits. The purpose of the kits was to appeal Gundam to a more mainstream audience. Also, by the time Gundam SEED came out, the character designs were criticized; particularly by Tomino; since the female designs especially were drawn that way to attract the young male fanservice loving audience so one could say that it got mainstream by that means as well.

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